The defendant in Marks v. Crunch San Diego has filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the Ninth Circuit’s September 2018 decision interpreting the TCPA’s automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) definition. In Marks, a unanimous Ninth Circuit three-judge panel held that the TCPA’s definition of an ATDS includes telephone equipment that can automatically dial phone numbers stored in a list, rather than just phone numbers that the equipment…

The FCC has taken a step toward getting control over the potential TCPA exposure a business faces when it calls one of its customers at a phone number that, unbeknownst to the business, has been reassigned from the customer to someone else. On December 13, 2018, the FCC released an order directing the creation of a single comprehensive database of disconnected numbers.  Phone service providers will be required to periodically report (the 15th of each…

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a notice asking for comment on what constitutes an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) under the TCPA following the Ninth Circuit’s September 20, 2018 decision in Marks v. Crunch San Diego.  In May 2018, the FCC issued a notice announcing that it was seeking comments on several TCPA issues following the D.C. Circuit’s decision in ACA International v. FCC.  The FCC’s new notice states that it…

Yesterday, a coalition of numerous trade organizations, including, among others, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, and the Mortgage Bankers Association, filed a Petition for Declaratory Ruling with the Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”), seeking clarification of the definition of “automatic telephone dialing system” (“ATDS”) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”).  Specifically, Petitioners request that, in light of the D.C. Circuit’s recent guidance on this topic in…

Key members of the CFPB’s enforcement, regulatory and supervision offices spoke yesterday at PLI’s 20th Annual Consumer Financial Services Institute in New York City.  The session addressed recent developments and upcoming initiatives at the CFPB, and took the form of a Q&A between the moderator and a panel of practitioners and CFPB personnel. The panelists from the CFPB included Anthony Alexis, Assistant Director of Enforcement; Diane E. Thompson, Managing Counsel, Office of Regulations; and Peggy…